Shawn Johnson and
Derek Hough closed out Monday's (Oct. 8)
"Dancing With the Stars: All-Stars" with a showstopping quickstep that the judges unanimously declared the best performance in the show's 15-season history.

Unfortunately, because the pair bent the rules a bit, their 26.5 score doesn't reflect the rave reviews.

And that doesn't bother them a bit.

"The judges are there to enforce the rules -- I get that," Derek told us backstage after the show. "Honestly I was expecting lower scores because of that. The fact that
Carrie Ann said she had to dock Shawn and me and still gave us a 9 -- I was like, She was going to give us a 10! But she wouldn't have given us a 9 unless we did that full-out performance.

"The scores are so close anyway," he added. "I feel like they are slightly redundant in a certain area. When they are so close, sometimes they become irrelevant. And it really is the people at home who vote who are going to get you through."

"Best dance ever" is "quite the title," Shawn enthused. "I love it. It just made it worth it. It was so fun -- we would've loved it if we'd gotten 5s and 6s and the judges hated it."

Have you seen a better dance than Shawn and Derek's quickstep? Do you think the judges' scores were fair?